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BEHIND the CURTAIN: Secrecy and the Death Penalty in the United States

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BEHIND the CURTAIN: Secrecy and the Death Penalty in the United States BEHIND THE CURTAIN: Secrecy and the Death Penalty in the United States The Death Penalty Information Center is a national non-profit organization serving the media and the public with analysis and information on issues concerning capital punishment. Founded in 1990, DPIC promotes informed discussion of the death penalty by preparing in-depth reports, conducting briefings for journalists, and serving as a resource to those working on this issue. DPIC is funded through the generosity of individual donors and foundations, including the Roderick MacArthur Justice Center; the Open Society Foundations; Atlantic Philanthropies; the Proteus Action League; the Themis Fund; the Tides Foundation; and M. Quinn Delaney. DEATH PENALTY INFORMATION CENTER Washington, D.C. www.deathpenaltyinfo.com BEHIND THE CURTAIN: Secrecy and the Death Penalty in the United States A report by the Death Penalty Information Center Principal Author: Robin Konrad† Edited by Robert Dunham and Ngozi Ndulue TABLE OF CONTENTS 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 7 SECRECY AND DEMOCRACY 9 HISTORICAL TRANSPARENCY IN EXECUTIONS 10 LETHAL INJECTION: THE CURRENT METHOD OF EXECUTION 14 THE SECRECY LANDSCAPE 14 New Drug Secrecy Laws 21 Secrecy in Viewing the Execution Itself 24 WHAT IS THERE TO HIDE? 25 Purported Reasons for Secrecy 32 Setting Aside the Veil: Uncovering Incompetence, Illegality, and Deception 33 The Incompetent Physician-Executioner 35 Illegal Importation of Drugs 39 Compounding Pharmacies with Questionable Practices 42 Misrepresenting Facts to Obtain Drugs 45 Swapping Drugs and Paying Cash for Drugs 46 THE COST OF SECRECY: AN ACCOUNT FROM OKLAHOMA 49 EVOLVING STANDARDS OF DECENCY 54 PROBLEMATIC EXECUTIONS USING NEW DRUG FORMULAS 55 Florida 56 Ohio 57 Oklahoma 60 Arizona 62 Alabama 63 Virginia 65 Arkansas 66 Tennessee 67 Nebraska 69 CONCLUSION EXECUTIVE SUMMARY During the past seven years, states have begun conducting executions with drugs and drug combinations that have never been tried before. They have done so behind an expanding veil of secrecy laws that shield the execution process from public scrutiny. As pharmaceutical companies have taken action to prevent states from using their medicines to execute prisoners, states have responded by procuring whatever drugs seem available and obtaining them secretly through questionable means. Since January 2011, legislatures in thirteen states have enacted new secrecy statutes that conceal vital information about the execution process. Of the seven- teen states that have carried out 246 lethal-injection executions between January 1, 2011 and August 31, 2018, all withheld at least some information about the about the execution process. All but one withheld information about the source of their execution drugs. Fourteen states prevented witnesses from seeing at least some part of the execution. Fifteen prevented witnesses from hearing what was STATES WITH NEW SECRECY LAWS 4 BEHIND THE CURTAIN happening inside the execution chamber. None of the seventeen allowed witness- es to know when each of the drugs was administered. This retreat into secrecy has occurred at the same time that states have con- ducted some of the most problematic executions in American history. Lethal injection was supposed to be a more humane method of execution than hanging, the firing squad, or the electric chair, but there have been frequent reports of prisoners who were still awake and apparently experiencing suffocation and ex- cruciating pain after they were supposed to be insensate. These problems have intensified with the use of new drug formulas, often including midazolam. In 2017, more than 60% of the executions carried out with midazolam produced eyewitness reports of an execution gone amiss, with problems ranging from la- bored breathing to gasping, heaving, writhing, and clenched fists. In several of these cases, state officials denied that the execution was problematic, asserting that all had proceeded according to protocol. But without access to informa- tion about drugs and the execution process, there is no way the public can judge for itself. Disturbing stories of botched executions are just one sign of the need for public scrutiny of lethal injection. Investigators who have managed to uncover hidden information have found evidence of illegal actions, misrepresentations to the courts and the public, and incompetence in the conduct of executions. States have repeatedly tried to conceal controversial information about executions, EXAMPLES OF QUESTIONABLE STATE CONDUCT IN CARRYING OUT LETHAL INJECTION EXECUTIONS • Hiring a physician-executioner who has been sued for malpractice at least 20 times, has been barred from practicing at two hospitals, and whose failure to use a written protocol, coupled with his dyslexia, resulted in him administering the wrong amounts of drugs; • Illegally importing drugs from a sham pharmacy operating out of a London store- front labeled “driving academy”; and • Buying drugs from a compounding pharmacy that committed more than 1800 violations of state health and safety guidelines and which the FDA found had “questionable potency, disinfecting and sterilization practices.” 5 including the use of illegally imported drugs, less than reputable drug sources, and unqualified executioners. Without transparency, cases of incompetence or misconduct can continue unchecked. Governmental transparency is fundamental to democracy. The public has a right to know how its government is carrying out its business and whether the government is working honestly and competently, by and for the People. The Eighth Amendment requires that punishments imposed by the government con- form to public standards of decency, but this is impossible to determine if crucial information about a punishment is kept from the public. Secrecy increases the risk of problems. It results in more botched and po- tentially problematic executions. Prisoners have a right to information about the execution process so that they can raise legitimate challenges to execution methods that may subject them to excruciating pain. Without this information, prisoners cannot meet the high burden of proof the courts have set out for challenging executions. This report documents the laws and policies that states have adopted to make information about executions inaccessible to the public, to pharmaceutical com- panies, and to condemned prisoners. It describes the dubious methods states have used to obtain drugs, the inadequate qualifications of members of the execution team, and the significant restrictions on witnesses’ ability to observe how exe- cutions are carried out. It summarizes the various drug combinations that have been used, with particular focus on the problems with the drug midazolam, and provides a state-by-state record of problems in recent executions. It explains how government policies that lack transparency and accountability permit states to violate the law and disregard fundamental principles of a democratic government while carrying out the harshest punishment the law allows. 6 BEHIND THE CURTAIN SECRECY AND DEMOCRACY “Secrecy and a free, democratic government don’t mix.” PRESIDENT HARRY S TRUMAN The First Amendment protects the right of the People “to know that their 1 government acts fairly, lawfully, and accurately.” For that right to have any mean- ing, the public must have access to information about how the government is actually carrying out its business. The public’s need for openness, transparency, and accountability is especially crucial when the government exercises the power to end an individual’s life. But the growing secrecy that shields current state efforts to carry out executions poses significant challenges to the rule of law and to the legitimacy of the democratic institutions administering capital punishment. Secrecy in executions implicates a variety of policy and constitutional con- cerns. First and most obviously, the public has the right to oversee and to approve or disapprove of the execution process. Secrecy not only prevents the public from having robust, informed, and honest discussion about the death penalty, it also makes public oversight impossible. Any discussion about the government’s abil- ity and willingness to carry out capital punishment in a competent, principled, and constitutionally acceptable manner is thwarted when states selectively hide information. Second, secrecy increases the risk of botched executions and has produced predictably problematic executions. To protect information from disclosure, state officials have circumvented normal procedures and attempted to modify protocols 2 without oversight. Hiding execution information from the public also fosters an environment of unaccountability that lacks essential checks and balances. When the veil of secrecy has been penetrated, courts and investigators have dis- covered that states have violated state and federal laws and regulations, deceived drug suppliers and manufacturers, encouraged breaches of contracts, and lied to the public. Third, secrecy frustrates the judicial process by unfairly limiting prisoners’ ability to prevent potentially unconstitutional executions. In order to challenge experimental or demonstrably inappropriate drug protocols or other dangerous execution practices, prisoners need all relevant information about their executions. The U.S. Supreme Court has imposed on prisoners an exceptionally high burden of proof in showing that a state’s execution method will subject them to uncon- stitutional levels of pain and suffering. Under
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